white pearl a tear from the moon –Terry Chitwood String of pearls/ string of tears/necklace of words/ necklace of fears. Writing about suffering, sorrow, and sacrifice terrifies writers, evoking agonizing feelings, painful memories, and unpleasant thoughts. For readers, the above topics captivate them, making them cry, thrilling them with dramatic tension, and surprising them with […]
Write without Writing
“Intuition cannot be produced. It has to be allowed to happen. But that is just what the rational mind cannot endure. It wants to control everything. It is not prepared to be silent, to be still, to allow things to happen . . . . [Active passivity] is what the Chinese call wu wei, action […]
The Taoist Writer: Creating Soul
You ask me why I make my home in the mountain forest, and I smile, and am silent, and even my soul remains quiet: it lives in the other world which no one owns. The peach trees blossom. The water flows. –Li Po (The Enlightened Heart: An Anthology of Sacred Poetry edited by Stephen Mitchell, […]
Overflowing Compassion
The wide pond expands as a mirror, The heavenly light and cloud shadows play upon it. How does such clarity occur? It is because it contains the living stream from the Fountain. –Chu Hsi (Creativity and Taoism: A Study of Chinese Philosophy, Art and Poetry by Chuan-Yuan Chang, p.209) The Tao can be symbolized as […]